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Two big payout Wild format events took place over the weekend. Most of the strong players on ladder, and in tournaments, have been concentrating on Standard, and so this was the first good chance to assess how the Wild meta is shaping up.

The first event was the Seoul Cup World Invitational. Eight players were invited Kno, Reynad, Thijs, StrifeCro, Mattun, Kranich, Ostkaka, and Surrender. The format was best of five conquest with a ban.

StrifeCro won this event with a lineup of Priest, Paladin, and Warrior, all of which played N'Zoth, the Corruptor in the deck. He also brought Combo Reno Jackson Warlock. He published decklists for the first three on Twitter.

The meta was heavily influenced by the recent nerfs to Druid. With Druid out of the format, players took the opportunity to play decks that are traditionally weak in that matchup. This led to control decks, often boosted by the interaction between N'Zoth and Sludge Belcher, to be the order of the day. The same thinking prevailed in the Gold Series Grand Open in Shanghai, where an invitation to the China Summer Championship and over $70,000 in prize money was on the line.

2048 players battled through four rounds of 8-man double elimination group stages, with two qualifying for the next round at each stage, to find a top eight. At this point the event became single elimination. The whole event was over in three days! The format for the later stages was best of five Conquest with no ban.

Does anyone have any glue?

The top eight was dominated once again by control, however the eventual winner, Betray, decided against playing Priest and instead brought Midrange Hunter. This Midrange Hunter deck functioned as a kind of Druid replacement, using new Whispers of the Old Gods card, Call of the Wild for some burst. This meant he still had the better of the two Control decks (RenoLock and Control Warrior), but also had an advantage by not having to play Priest, and instead was able to play a deck that had a relatively easy time.

If you're looking to play Wild, make sure you factor the control decks into your choice. There's a lot of them to get through.

Diablo’s 20th Anniversary will take place in the beginning of 2017 and it will be celebrated in all other Blizzard games. Let’s take a look at the special Diablo-themed Tavern Brawl planned for Hearthstone.
During the release of the latest Hearthstone patch, a new Diabloesque card back was discovered. According to an article by Hearthpwn, where we found all this information, this card back is tied to an upcoming Tavern Brawl called “[The] Dark Wanderer”.

The chalk board, heroes, hero powers and some cards of minions, spells and secrets of this upcoming Brawl have been datamined and you can find them in the same Hearthpwn article. The two players will take on the roles of the Dark Wanderer and the Cow King, two figures we all recognise from Diablo II. Presumably, the card back will be rewarded after your first victory in the Brawl.
We are expecting this new Tavern Brawl during the first weeks of January 2017 – just like the other Diablo celebrations in Blizzard games (most notably in World of Warcraft).